Once More Unto the Breach
by the.goal.is.greatness
Summary: There is a limit to the most enduring self-control. [Naruto x Neji] [5x1]


**Title:** Once More Unto the Breach  
**Genre:** Romance / Drama  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing:** Naruto x Neji  
**Spoilers:** N/A  
**Summary:** There is a limit to the most enduring self-control.  
**Word Count:** 4,509  
**Warnings:** Post series AU, obviously, but aren't all non-canon pairings?

**Disclaimer:** _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Summary is a quote from _The Scarlet Pimpernel_.

**A/N:** Or "5 Times Neji Kept His Control and 1 Time He Didn't"

* * *

1.

_(Disappointment)_

Neji has perfected his self-control over his entire life. He has made himself serene, indifferent, cold. He has made certain that there is not an emotion he cannot suppress from sheer force of will, that there is no amount of pain he cannot work through with iron control. There is nothing that can break past the icy veneer of his emotions and break through to who is actually is beneath the skin. Nothing.

"I should not be surprised that you would fail."

His uncle's voice is piecing, slinging through him like a kunai into his chest, but he doesn't let his face reveal what he feels. Not a twitch of brow or cheek or eye. Just a stoic wall of young boy, staring blankly at the wall over his uncle's shoulder as he is told he is a failure. It means nothing to him.

"I suppose we should simply be grateful that you are only Branch House, though our relation makes my own disappointment in you grow." His tone is carefully blank, devoid of any shred of affection for his nephew, a glimpse of what the future holds for an emotionless Hyuuga.

Neji doesn't let it bother him.

"Remove yourself from my presence."

He's not sure anything can bother him anymore.

* * *

2.

_(Pain)_

"Holy shit, Neji!"

The voice is frantic and high and it shoots through his head like a lightning bolt, leaving a ringing in its wake. He grits his teeth against the pain. "Shut up."

"You're alive!" The relief in that voice is palpable and when hands reach out the touch him he almost groans at the pain it causes. He swallows the sound down, but some sign of his discomfort must show on his face because the hands vanish abruptly. "Granny Tsunade would have _murdered_ be if I only brought back your corpse."

He slits open one eye to peer up. The sun is blinding. A sudden eclipse of human flesh blocks the light and frightened, wide, blue eyes are staring down at him, still faintly worried, but mostly reassured with his sudden return to consciousness. "How… bad…?"

Naruto frowns. "You're bleeding like… a lot. Like _dude _so much. And I think like a few of your limbs are broken. And, really though… so much blood." That voice is wavering. This is something that is outside Naruto's control, he isn't good at putting people back together, only at pulling them back from the edge. He isn't the one that heals people after they almost… almost die. That's Sakura-chan and Granny Tsunade's job. Naruto doesn't have tender healer's hands or a caring bedside manner. He is rough and tumble and vibrant and energy. He doesn't know where to put his hands to help, doesn't know how to keep him from dying.

He takes in Naruto's less than stellar assessment silently. The pain is overwhelming, but Neji hasn't been training as a shinobi his entire life to fall apart at this. So he grits his teeth and clenches his eyes shut against a wave of dizziness and nausea. "I'm… fine." Though his voice quavers at the beginning, he's firmed it at the end, no sign of the pain and blood loss that is rocketing through him.

"No you're not you stupid Hyuuga," Naruto mutters over his head. The last thing he hears before he blacks is Uzumaki saying, "But you fucking will be."

* * *

3.

_(Sorrow)_

It's quiet. So quiet that his own heartbeat seems loud in his ears. He can hear the steady thump, thump, thump of it in the deathly silent room. It smells of lavender and antiseptic and tea. The young woman lying on the bed is as still as death. If not for the gentle rise and fall of her chest, her sickly pallor and limp hair would have made one think she wasn't breathing at all.

"Neji?"

He glances up at the soft, querulous voice. "Haruno."

"Tsunade-sama said you can stay here as long as you want after visiting hours, but Hinata-chan isn't likely to wake for several days." She doesn't say _if she wakes at all_ but he can hear the unspoken words in her voice. "Her injuries are… very severe and it will take us several more exploratory surgeries to repair the damage done to her brain."

He nods solemnly, before glancing back at his cousin.

"Shall I tell her that you're staying?"

He's silent for a long moment. There's a part of him that wants to stay. He is very fond of his cousin now that they are older, in a way that he wasn't when they were children. And he is very worried for her, terrified even that she might never wake. But it would never do for his uncle to think he fell apart and caused a scene in the hospital. So even though he wants to stay and make sure she is alright, he forces himself to stand calmly. "I trust your judgment, Haruno, so I will leave you do it." Then he departs, and doesn't look back.

* * *

4.

_(Anger)_

"Tsunade-sama wants to see you."

Neji glanced up and gave a cursory nod to the faceless ANBU who had addressed him. It didn't matter that there should be no reason for the Hokage to need to see him, it was his job to simply obey. He walked through the doors of her office five minutes later, punctual and calm. "Tsunade-sama," he greeted, stoically.

"Ah, Neji, there you are, I've got a mission for you." She pulled her feet off the desk and started shuffling through the stacks of paperwork strewn about. He had no idea how the disarray allowed for any kind of governing to take place, but it wasn't his place to question that. As long as he got his missions and his payments, nothing else concerned him. "It's…" She frowned, knocking another stack onto the floor. "It's somewhere."

"I can return later, if necessary."

She glanced up at him, trying to find a sign on his face that he was being sarcastic, but found only a blank mask. "No," she turned back to her mess, "that won't be – aha!" She held up a small note triumphantly. "Here it is!" She squinted at the tiny scrawl for a moment. "Ah yes, I remember now." Neji waited patiently while she sprawled back into her chair, letting the paper drift in the general vicinity of the wastebasket, before she stared at him over her steepled hands. "I need you to perform a few community service tasks."

He blinked. "Pardon?"

She waved a hand in his direction. "The consul has come to the… conclusion… that, as the most well-known of my jounin," The terms _fan club _and _genius _hovered in the air between them but remained unspoken, "it would behoove you to generate better relationships with the bulk of the populace."

Neji blinked again, trying to come to terms with what she was asking of him.

"They'd be ridiculously easy for you, so don't worry about getting overworked or anything. We're talking strictly D-ranked missions engineered solely to boost your image in the public's eye."

"You want me…" he said slowly, "To complete _D-ranked_ missions for… your image?" He could feel a slow simmer of anger start to swirl in his chest but he focused on swallowing it down.

Tsunade shrugged. "Yeah, basically. Rescuing cats from trees, helping little old ladies with their shopping. Makes you seem more relatable."

"Relatable?" The word tasted bitter in his mouth. It made him seem more… _genin_. Like a child. Like he wasn't the Hyuuga prodigy, a genius from childhood. "Relatable."

She glanced at him sharply as he repeated the word. "Is that a problem, Hyuuga?"

Yes it _was_. It was an insult to take his _years_ of training, his blood and sweat and broken bones and near-deaths in the name of Fire Country and force him to run errands. It was a disgrace to his name and his House and…

… and it was his job to say nothing.

"Of course not, Hokage-sama. When would you like me to start?"

* * *

5.

_(Mirth)_

The kunai that whizzes by his head misses him by mere inches, but that's not the most surprising thing about the room he walks into. It's full of screaming seven and eight year olds, all in various stages of disarray, more than half of them waving sharp, pointed objects at one another in a manner that is mildly concerning.

And there is a young woman sitting in the middle of the room on the floor, looking as overwhelmed and wrung out as he could ever remember seeing her. "Tenten?"

The kunoichi glances up at him, eyes mournful. "Neji!" She starts scrambling to her feet as he takes her in. One bun has come undone. There is what is either paint or blood smeared across the front of her shirt, either option a distinct possibility. There is a line of marker across one cheek in a wobbly scrawl. She seems frantic to reach him, almost maniacal. "Thank kami you're here!"

He takes a half step back at her zealousness.

"These kids, they're little demon _shits_." He blinks at the harsh language from her, normally so reserved, in front of the children. "I can't _take it_ anymore. I – "

Before he can even open his mouth to warn her, one of the 'little demons' darts in front of her, tripping her up and sending her sprawling. The motion upsets a young girl walking with focused determination. It sends the cup she's carrying flying into the air to land upended on Tenten's head. And, of course, it was full of bright, sparkling glitter.

Tenten sits in horror, unable to comprehend the level of misery she is sinking into. The sight makes a twitch want to pull at the corner of Neji's mouth, the look on her face – equal parts despair and resignation – makes his stomach clench with the fluttering of laughter.

"I shall return when you've composed yourself," he manages to say without infection, as she stares at the children who ignore her and continue to chase one other around the room.

* * *

+1

_(Lust)_

No, no, _no_. He could not do this, this could not possibly be happening to him. Wide lavender eyes were staring in abject horror at the sight before him. Uzumaki was training. Haruno was displaying her strength with deadly accuracy and the sight of the kunoichi, beautiful and deadly, should have drawn his eye, should have made Neji take an appreciative glance at her curves, but that's not what had drawn his glance.

It was Uzumaki… shirtless and sweating, that make him take a second look.

The boy – young man – was tall, taller than Neji would have imagined him ever growing, all toned limbs and long torso. That riveted, muscled stomach was taut with tension, glistening with the dark outline of the Kyuubi seal. The long, dark lines drew his eye, made him think strangely of following that mark with his fingers and then his mouth. He wanted to lick the sweat from his skin, wanted to feel that body above him, sliding and moving. He wanted to feel the nip of teeth and nails and and and –

"Hey, Neji! You're up next!"

He snaps back to the here and now with a jerk and Naruto is right in front of him, staring at him brightly. Haruno is gone and it is suddenly just the two of them.

Neji is suddenly throbbing and hard inside his pants, so swiftly that he feels momentarily lightheaded as the blood rushes away from his head. He takes a step back, mortified that he, that he… was attracted to a man. He couldn't. This was ridiculous. It was a well-known fact that Naruto was as fluid with his partners as water. Even Gaara didn't seem to mind the gender he approached. Maybe it was the demons, he didn't know, he didn't care. He had never thought it would be an issue for him. He was the Hyuuga prodigy. Branch House or no, he was obligated to have a child and continue the bloodline.

But now, confronted with bright cerulean eyes, slanted and vibrant and _right there_, standing before the uncovered flesh and smelling the cinnamon-y masculine smell of him, Neji wants nothing more than to rub against Naruto like a cat in heat. He wants to bury his face in the curve of that golden neck. He wants to let Naruto rut against him into the dirt.

"I…" It's only years of Academy training that keeps his voice from quavering. "… fear I have other plans."

Naruto blinks. "Oh." He looks legitimately crestfallen. The sight makes Neji sway forward just a little. "Maybe another time then?"

"I…" Naruto is too close, there's too much skin. Neji can feel the heat radiating off of him like a fire, hotter than any normal person. "I…"

"Neji?" He takes a step forward, concerned, reaching out. But Neji takes a step back just as swiftly, needing space, needing clarity, needing – "Are you alright?" He's watching the Hyuuga with eyes too knowing, too keen, like he ccan see right through his mask.

"Yes, of course." His voice is steady, but the rest of him is not.

Naruto cocks his head to the side, lets his eyes trail slowly, slowly, slowly down the length of his body and then back up again in a long sweep of lashes. "Are you sure?" He doesn't give him time to answer. "Your heart is beating really fast."

He blinks. "I –"

Naruto takes a step forward, making Neji take one back. Then another and another. "And your breathing has gone all… breathy."

He can't speak, can't answer. When he takes one more step backwards there is suddenly the harsh press of bark against his back and he has nowhere else to go, can only stand there as Naruto continues to take slow, languid steps forward, until he is close enough to brace his arms on the tree and surround Neji in a cage of skin and sweat and heat. He swallows a moan, but when blue eyes dilate he wonders if Naruto heard it anyway.

"And you smell…" Naruto leans forward until his face is just a whisper from the smooth skin of his neck, right above the beating pulse, and takes a long deep breath, "you smell like," another deep breath and Neji finds that his knees are shaking, "like… _sex_."

His knees give out abruptly, but Naruto is crowded so close that it doesn't matter. That slick, muscled chest is pressed against his clothed one, pressing him up against the tree. When he feel a lave of tongue followed by a nip of teeth right against that frantically beating pulse the whine that spirals out of his throat is the neediest sound he has ever made.

He struggles to regain some semblance of control, taking slow and even breaths, but it is a struggle when every breath draws in the scent of the man in front of him. How is that a simple touch could unravel him so much, how do people stand it, feeling this? Is this what it was like for others around someone they found attractive?

"Stop that." He blinks, the world coming back into focus, only to find Naruto's eyes inches from him. "Don't do that. Stay here." He leans forward, pressing their bodies together from shoulder to thigh and the sensation makes Neji arch against him with an involuntary motion. It makes a slow, feral grin slide across Naruto's face. "Have you ever done this before?"

Neji tries to summon enough energy to glare at him, but when Naruto pulls back a little Neji has to grasp his shoulders to keep standing so it ruins the point.

"It's different with a guy, but _so good_."

The last of that is accompanied by Naruto palming the ache between his legs and it makes his eyes roll in his head, makes him groan before he can force the noise down, makes him thrust against it one, twice, as he digs his grip into Naruto's shoulders with bruising strength.

Naruto is staring at him wide-eyed. "Neji… have you ever done this… ever?" He _does_ manage to summon enough energy to glare at the blond this time, but Naruto just grins at him, gleeful and mischievous. "Oh holy shit bro, I am about to blow your fucking _mind_."

He vanishes so abruptly from in front of him that Neji sways unsteadily until a firm hand on his hip steadies him against the tree. When another hand fumbles with his pants he struggles away, but Naruto is insistent and his own body is betraying him with its eagerness to feel _more_. He can't steady his nerves or his breathing or his heart. He can't –

There's a sudden cool air spilling across his thighs. He opens his mouth to complain, but suddenly there is a wet, sucking, _heat_ surrounding him, and all that comes out is a ragged groan. His head slams back against the bark but he doesn't feel it. His knuckles are grasping Naruto's shoulders with a white-knuckled grip but he doesn't notice. His eyes are wide open but he doesn't see anything.

All there is is that mouth and that glorious, glorious heat and he can't think, can't breathe, can't –

"Ah!… _uughhh_…" It's more a plea than anything, the only thing he can say, all other words have flown completely out of his head at the sensation of Naruto's mouth surrounding him. It's better than anything he could have ever imagined – he who had always thought that sex would just be something he did to create heirs, he who thought he would marry whomever the Main House ordered him to. He had spared no passing thought for the idea that there could be… _this_. That there could be such pleasure and that it would feel so, so good.

Naruto suddenly drags his mouth up, scraping him with just the slightest hint of teeth and swallows down his tip, all in one smooth motion that makes Neji 's hands slide into his hair, makes him arch his spine backwards like a bow, makes him cry out in shock. That sucking warmth vanishes and he opens bleary eyes to peer down, but that is almost as bad. Naruto is on his knees before him, sucking on one of his own fingers and, even as Neji watches, he reaches out with his free hand to grasp Neji and start a steady slide of slick tightness that is almost too much. The sight of Naruto, his pupils blown wide, his swirling seal pulsing with chakra, makes Neji reckless, makes him want to touch back, makes him want more.

"What – "

Naruto releases his fingers with a wet pop that makes Neji throb. He's partway through letting his painfully tight grip in blond hair go when, in a sudden surge of motion, Naruto replaces his mouth over Neji's aching length with a hallowed cheek swallow and simultaneously reaches behind him to slid those wet fingers somewhere Neji had never even thought about and crooks them _just so_. His reaching hands suddenly can't find purchase and he sways over Naruto in awkward confusion. He doesn't know if he wants to thrust forward into that mouth, or arch backwards so Naruto can brush against that spot again. He whines low in his throat in indecision.

When Naruto chuckles, the sound reverberates around him and makes him gasp. But when Naruto crowds into him, pushing him back, back, back until he's pressed tight against the unmoving tree at his back, it means that devilish fingers at pressing ruthlessly against his prostate. It's painfully good and he wants more – wants – he doesn't know – but he wants something – needs –

"Please…" It's a whisper, so quiet no one but Naruto would have been able to hear it with his demon ears. Even as he says it, it's like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. Please – do this for me, help me. Please, someone else take control, take me, please, please, "_please_…"

Naruto's touch suddenly vanishes, he's gone and Neji almost crumbles from the loss of support and sensation, but he's wrapped in strong arms and then there's soft ground at his back and Naruto is looming over him, all sunlight hair and sky eyes, his chakra crackling like electricity around him. "Fuck Neji," he murmurs, almost to himself, "do you have any idea how fucking beautiful you are?"

Even if he had wanted to answer, he can't, because Naruto, suddenly yanks at their clothing, removes them all in a chaotic rush and then hoist Neji's leg s high and wide and then there is pressure and and and –

"Holy fucking shit."

Naruto is growling out a litany in that same vein over and over again into his throat as he arches forward, deeper, filling Neji up in a place he didn't know was empty and Naruto's cock is pressing incessantly against that perfect place inside him and his own leaking length is trapped between them, rubbing against the spiraling seal. When Naruto gives a shallow thrust, the seal crackles with chakra and the feel of it against him makes his hands scramble against the slick expanse of shoulders, searching for purchase.

Naruto is groaning against the curve of his shoulder even as his hips continue a slow and rolling rhythm that is driving Neji wild. "Kami, Neji you can't believe how long I've wanted this – wanted to see you like this – all for me – so perfect, so fucking beautiful, holy shit, gods you're so, so, ugh!" Words seem to fail him so instead he lets his hands wander, let's them trail over ribs and tweak nipples, lets his mouth leave a dark ring of bruises that he sooths with his tongue, lets his chakra snap and whiz around them like sensual electricity.

"I – " Neji struggles to find his voice, he's lost it somewhere and he wants, he wants – "More."

Naruto stills and it's enough to make Neji keen, but he's staring down at him, earnest and serious. "What?"

"I want… more." He licks at suddenly dry lips and glances away, eye contact somehow more intimate that anything else. "I want to… let go…"

He expects a grin, a glib comment, but Naruto is still and silent for a long, long moment, even though Neji is staring off to the side he can feel the weight of that gaze. Then there is a gentle grip on his chin, turning his face back. He waits for Naruto to say something, but all he gets is a press of lips against his. His eyes flare in shock, but flicker closed just as quickly when Naruto resumes that slow, controlled roll. Kissing makes it… more.

His hands flutter up slowly to Naruto's hair, to drag his nails down that scalp. When the motion makes Naruto groan, he does it again and again. When Naruto's own hands tickle a path down to his thighs, Neji lets them fall open wider, lets Naruto fall between that cradle. He doesn't object when a hand shifts them higher, so wide it hurts. Instead it is as natural as breathing to arch upwards into the motion, the find purchase with his heels on Naruto's calves and thighs. He lets he hands fall to the ground, fisting in the grass for purchase so he can arch up and meet that sway of hips.

There's a coiling in his stomach that feels as tight as a rope around his throat, it's cinching tighter and tighter until Neji can't think past anything expect that pressure. He wants to unravel that rope, wants it to come apart, but he can't – he needs –

"_Please…_ Naruto… please… I can't… I can't… I… " He's thrashing his head from side to side. It hurts, but he knows he wants more, needs more and then he can – "Harder." He tries to twist his hips for more friction, more depth, harder, deeper, but Naruto is relentlessly with his steady pace. In and out, over and over. Neji writhes, wanting more, needing, needing –

The rope snaps so abruptly that he chokes on a whine. His body clenches like a vice and he is blind with the sensation, never noticing when Naruto tumbles into his own release, not until his spurting length is suddenly tingling from a pulsing seal. It makes him cry out in painful pleasure, makes his toes curl until the muscles cramp, makes him dig bloody crescent moons from his fingernails into Naruto's shoulders.

"_Oh – ooohhh_ – " His breath sighs out of him and with it, all the tension that he had never notices riding on his shoulders, the clenching of his gut is gone, his jaw rigid from clenching unclenches, and he is suddenly, languidly… boneless.

Naruto is limp and panting on top of him, but Neji does not care. He is basking in the afterglow, reveling in the removal of all the tension that he never noticed he carried, because he had lived with it for so long. It is abruptly… gone. And it is… glorious.

"Neji?" His name is asked in a hesitant voice, and he murmurs dreamily as he tilts is gaze up to meet Naruto's. "Are you… alright?"

He blinks, mind whirling for an answer. Is he alright? He… Is this why others formed attachments? He had been taught closeness was a weakness, but… Well, there could be no level of closer than this, between them and… and it was as if Naruto had lifted every doubt, every feeling of discontent and anger and torment and every burden from him with nothing more than groaning words and gentle touches. At the memory of Naruto calling him beautiful, at the recollection of soft hands and delicate lips – he can feel the gentle pull of relaxation tugging at him.

"I –" His eyes trail over that uncertain face. "I am… wonderful."

The grin that spreads across Naruto's face is almost blinding. "Okay! That's… awesome! Great! Really, really good! I – " He looks sheepish for a moment and it is such an endearing look that Neji is sure it is at least 60% act, but it works. "Then… then we can do that again?"

There's a flare of chakra from where their stomachs are slickly and messily pressed together and the sensation makes Neji's spent length twitch in tired interest. "I would be agreeable to that."

Naruto's smile softened as he murmurs appreciatively. But then their mouths are sliding against each other's once more and there is no more need for talk.


End file.
